'Trader Ray' did it his way.Browns GM breaks down his 'hello' draft

Sunday

May 11, 2014 at 12:44 AM

Getting to Ray Farmer's key points from his long talk after his first draft as Browns general manager.

Ray Farmer was in a far better mood Saturday night than he had been 24 hours earlier.The shock of the Josh Gordon blow-up had worn off, and he had six new draft picks on the team, all potential starters drafted within the first four rounds.The Gordon news blew up in his face Friday. He took a long, cool drink of water and a deep breath and had his go-face back on Saturday night.As they closed down Radio City Music Hall in New York, Farmer walked downstairs in Berea, wished everyone concerned a happy Mother’s Day, and covered three days of drafting.Paring down the topics from what Horton said Saturday:

On one of those “league sources reports” that claimed the Browns thought Teddy Bridgewater was the best quarterback in the draft:“We do a lot of studies. We do have an analytics department. There’s a lot of pieces of information that come out of those things. Some I think people hear and read about and lead people in the wrong direction as to what conclusions can be made from the information we gather. Nonetheless, we chose Johnny Manziel because we had an opportunity to get a player that we really liked and we really wanted.”

On believing in analytics for player evaluation:“I am. I went to Duke, so I’m a nerd by trait. I do like the numbers.”

What does Farmer say to fans scratching their heads about not drafting a wide receiver, given the Gordon issue?“Patience really tells the tale. There’s plenty of opportunity for us to address what everyone would believe is a need, but in our opinion, again, there’s plenty of opportunity to add players, to change the roster and really make a difference.“I’d like to ask everybody here one question, as well. How many of the receivers that were with the Seattle Seahawks during their entire season last year and through the beginning of the playoffs were drafted players?“Golden Tate was out for a considerable amount of time, but the vast majority of those guys were not drafted. There’s definitely an opportunity to play with and identify talented players that can help your football team.”

Did Horton agree with those who thought the draft have a deep wide receiver pool?“I did, and I still do. Again, when you look at the number of wide receivers that were drafted and when they were drafted, I would tell you that we made the decisions that we made because we really valued the players that we got at a certain point. When, in our opinion, the most talented of that group was surpassed, we weren’t in a position to take the top-rated (wideouts) we had on our board; those guys had already been drafted.”

Horton made five trades, running the show rather than sitting there as an assistant GM, as he did last year.“Trader Ray became the call as I would answer the telephone. It was definitely interesting to hear friends and colleagues call and say, ‘Is Trader Ray available?’“I didn’t think I’d be a wheeler-dealer. I got a lot of interesting feedback from my constituents around the league as to the amount of trades and moving that we did. That said, I do think it was different. The room was different ... the aura of the room was different. How we conducted our business was different, and more so to fit my personality.”

Draft-weekend egrets?“I don’t know ... I always have remorse when players that I fell in love with during the process get selected in a way that I didn’t have a chance to get them.”

Who starts in 2014, probably, from among the six picks?“Coach Pett ... it’s his decision on who’s going to play.”

Bridgewater vs. Manziel? The thought process when Dallas passed on Manziel at 16?“Teddy Bridgewater was a young man that I definitely liked the person. I thought he was a really good college player who did a lot of positive things. I’m happy for him that he landed in the first round and went to Minnesota. Congratulations to him.“There was a bundle of players that we were constantly keeping our eye on throughout the middle of the first round. When we had an opportunity to take Johnny, we made the decision that he was the guy that we wanted.”

Jimmy Haslam’s input on drafting “Elvis,” as Jerry Jones calls him?“I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that Jimmy Haslam at no point demanded, requested or tried to influence the process in any way. He definitely asked questions. He’ll definitely give his opinion of what he thinks and all of those things are fine, but at the end of the day he trusted the football staff to make the decisions that we thought were the right decisions for this football team.”(We will ask what opinions Haslam shared when the owner stops in Canton Monday.)

Who among the QBs in the draft is ready to start now?“I would say all of those guys have an opportunity to start early. It’s up to each individual club. That’s a hard projection because you never know how quickly a guy is going to absorb all the information. In my own mind, I always look at the college game like it’s checkers. I don’t think it’s very complicated in a lot of situations. Coaches don’t have the time and the commitment to put in the resources like we do, so they play a different brand of ball than the NFL is.”

What of the reports the Browns were close to trading up with Tennessee for the 11th pick?“We definitely called. We called Tennessee. We spent time calling a lot of clubs, from Tennessee all the way back to Philadelphia (at 22). We made phone calls and from my perspective, there was a bundle of players that we were interested in, so again, there were definitely thoughts and ideas of who was coming to us, what player could we get and one of the tenets a lot of people I think operate under during the course of the draft is that there’s pods of players that you like. And as those pods of players start to run out, you may lose a guy that you truly, truly covet. Then you better make a move. To that end, we worked through the process, we found a guy that we like and when the opportunity came, we jumped on it.”

Might the team risk doubling No. 8 overall pick Justin Gilbert as a kick returner?“That’s truly Mike’s decision. I do think we have people that are here that can also be dynamic returners. But Justin is a tremendous talent when you get the ball in his hands. How they decide to use him will be a coaching decision.”

On whether Gordon’s situation was any clearer Saturday than it had been during a contentious press conference Friday?“No. Again, I know it’s frustrating for a lot of people not to have information and it seems like we’re somehow avoiding the topic. The reality is that to some degree my hands are tied for what I can say. There’s really nothing I can contribute to this conversation other than, I have no comment. I will add clarity when there is clarity.”

His message to fans bummed about the Gordon news.“I would say that frustration is a natural part of it and I think that’s what was felt and heard when that announcement was made. I don’t fault the fans for their reaction to it. I don’t fault anyone for being disappointed. To that end, it’s our job to make those decisions less painful and in time, it’s no different than if a player was going out there in the offseason and broke an ankle or tore an ACL playing pickup hoops. We have to build a football team that can win regardless of who’s missing.”

What will the shopping for a wideout look like?“There are plenty of opportunities. There will be college free agents. There will be other receivers to move off of rosters depending on whom they selected. There will be opportunities to make trades based upon how teams look at their rosters. When those opportunities present themselves, we hope to strike.“Look at Seattle ... you find players when you give players the opportunity to contribute. There are names that people don’t recognize yet. There are names that people don't know. There are players that people don't recognize as being good players until they’re given the opportunity. When they’re given those opportunities, they demonstrate they can execute at the level we need them to. Some become household names, some become general contributors to a roster. “I don't know how many people would have said Victor Cruz (undrafted in 2010) is Victor Cruz until he demonstrated he was Victor Cruz. We’re going to continue to give guys an opportunity to contribute and demonstrate what they can do.”

Did Horton feel the Ravens breathing down his neck to get Terrance West before the Browns landed the RB in Round 3?“I believe I got to Terrance West just before somebody got to Terrance West. I don't know who specifically, but there was definitely the feeling. The term we like to use in our draft room is murderer’s row. When murderer's row comes up, you're going to lose the guys that you want. There were several instances throughout the draft where we referred to pods of teams that could take players that we were interested in. As we saw those pods of teams coming up, we felt it was advantageous for us to move in front of those teams.”

Was West his best value pick?“I’m really excited to have him. I don’t know if I'd call it a steal. I do think this was a deep draft.”

Draft week as a first-time GM?“I really don’t think I was nervous. I worked through the process. I’m not really an up-and-down guy. I'm pretty ... I'm not going to use the word laissez-faire ... but I’m pretty calm the majority of the time. I had more nerves playing sports than doing what I do now. To make the football analogy, it felt like before every game I played, I always had butterflies no matter how old I was.”

Greg Little didn’t exactly sneak into the league. He was a Round 2 pick in 2011. Any hope his career takes off?“The young man's talented. The question mark would then fall onto can he be consistent and do the things that he has physically demonstrated he can do at times? If he continues to do those things and add a level of consistency ... the difference between being good and great is consistency. “When a guy shows you he can jump up and make the one-handed catch, shows you he can break a tackle, the question then is can he repeatedly do that over and over again? That's the difference between being average or marginal, and good or great.”

On he was surprised Dallas didn’t pounce on Manziel at 16?“I don’t know that I was surprised as much as I was happy.“There were multiple teams that I thought had the chance to take Johnny. You never really know who is going to make that pick when it’s their time to make that pick. There are players that I hoped or thought may slide to us that they got gobbled up. As much as you look at your board and you think, ‘Man, this guy has a chance to be here in the second round; this guy has a chance to be here in the third round,’ and then you look at your board like, ‘Man.’ It’s like Battleship. “Guys start plucking off and you’re like, ‘Man, they got me. There’s no one left at the level that I wanted them’ when it’s your turn to pick. It’s funny. I texted another team today and I was like, ‘Battleship. You got me.’ I put B-17 or I put a number down and I was like, ‘You sank my battleship.’ They got me. They got me.”

What about managing “Elvis?”“You have to have a game plan and a strategy. Johnny does have celebrity. He’s a polarizing type of personality to some degree, or the legend of Johnny Football, if you will. People have created this swell around him, and part of our job is going to help him deal with that in a professional manner.“I’ve had conversations with him. I know others have had conversations with him. He’s maturing in a way that, hopefully, he’s going to learn how to deal with these things on his own, and he won’t need anyone to help him guide the ship.”• • •Fresh Brownie bites at www.twitter.com/sdoerschukREP